Broken Tranquility
by Aoife the Shadow
Summary: It started with a member death, and before they knew it, those peaceful days were already beyond their reach...


Kano was dead.

And he had been dead for two months.

He died protecting his friends from the overly curious scientists, sacrificed himself while doing so.

Everyone cried in his burial ceremony. Even the legebdary coldhearted Shintaro wept without shame. It was such a big shock for them, to lost someone like Kano. He was their friend, their family, and losing a family member, even the annoying one like Kano, was always hard. The Mekakushi Dan members knew it very well, since almost all of them had lost someone precious to them.

Ever since he left, the atmosphere in their hideout was never the same. Kido rarely spoke to anyone and locked herself in her room most of the time. Seto was scolded by his boss because he often spaced out while working. Mary was even clumsier than before. Momo and Hibiya never fought again. Konoha lost his passion in drawing. Even Ene never messed around with Shintaro's folder again. It didn't matter though, since Shintaro almost never used his computer again, letting Ene resided in his phone.

And Kano's dead was just the beginning...

"Hey, Momo! Is Ene in your phone now?"

Momo, who was flipping through a magazine pages absent-mindedly, looked up with a confused look. "No. She hasn't come to my phone since, urm, a long time ago?"

"That's weird, she isn't here either," Shintaro showed his Ene-less phone to his sister.

Momo's forehead wrinkled in worry, "Maybe you should check your computer?" she suggested.

"Nah, I have, and she wasn't there. And I doubt she can come to my or the other's computer without a connection cable, and I haven't synced my phone for ages!"

"Well, checking everyone's phones and computers won't hurt," Momo put her magazine down and stood up, "Come on! I'll help you!"

They began their search for Ene. They checked Seto's phone, which it's owner left n the couch, but they didn't find the cyber girl. They asked Hibiya, but the boy said that his phone was broken. Konoha and Mary didn't have cell phone, and none of them had enough courage to go to Kido's room. So, after kicked his sister out if his room, Shintaro checked every folders on his computer. But still, no Ene.

"She isn't here either!" Momo announced. She closed her laptop on her lap with a sigh. "Seriously, if this is one of her prank, she has gone too far!"

Shintaro, who was fiddling with his phone in another attempt to find Ene, nodded grimly. "I guess she would show up soon."

"I hope so. We can't lost any member again!" Momo murmured.

"Yeah, you're ri... Wait, what's this?"

"What's wrong Onii-chan?" Momo asked curiously.

"There's a message in my draft. Weird..." Shintaro murmured. He tapped his phone and the message popped up. Momo peered from Shintaro shoulder so she could read the message.

HELP! HELP ME MAS

The Kisaragi siblings stared at the unfinished message in shock.

"What?" it's the only word Momo could managed to say.

Meanwhile, Mary was worrying about a completely different matter.

She knocked on Kido's door. "Kido, are you sure you're okay?" she called out.

No answer could be heard from the room. Again, Mary called out.

"Kido! Please answer me!" she called out desperately.

Again, silence was the only one who answered her. Usually, Kido would grunted or yelled for her to leave her alone whenever Mary came to her room.

Mary's shoulders slumped. She almost gave up and was going to leave the room when she saw a familiar figure was walking toward her.

"She isn't coming out, right?" Seto asked. Mary nodded.

Seto sighed and pulled out a master key from one of his pocket. Ever since Kano's death and Kido's breakdown, he always brought the key with him, in case something went wrong. He inserted the key to the door's keyhole. He tried to turn the key, but surprisingly the key refused to move.

"She left her key in the keyhole, it seems," Seto murmured, then he raised his voice. "Kido! You've locked yourself in ther for too long! Come on, dinner's ready!"

Like Mary, no one answered his call. The boy's expression became worried.

"Looks like I have to use some force. Mary, step back a bit, okay?" Seto asked. Mary nodded and obeyed right away.

Seto turned the door knob and pushed in the same time with all of his might. It wasn't long before Mary could heard the sound of the breaking door lock. The door swung open and slammed to the wall with a loud 'bang'.

"Wow, Seto is so strong," Mary thought before she followed Seto, who had already entered Kido's room.

"Oi, Kido! You've to co... What the hell is this?"

Seto's usual kind and gentle words quickly changed into some curse words Mary had never heard. She wondered what could made Seto cursed like that, because Seto never cursed before.

Then she saw the room's state.

Kido's room was a complete mess. Her cupboard was thrown open and all of her clothes were scattered all over the floor, half of them were already torn and ragged. Her mirror was shattered and she could see the broken pieces on the floor. Her table and chair was flipped over and her phone was already in pieces.

"Who did this!" Seto yelled in an angry tone which made Mary almost jump. She had never seen Seto in this state, and it frightened her.

Seto ran to Kido's bed and pulled the blanket. He gasped when he saw a large amount of red liquid had stained the white fabric. His head jerked toward the room's window.

The window was wide open, and there was blood trail on the floor leading to the window.

Kido herself was nowhere to be seen.

Their leader was gone.

The word "chaos" wasn't enough to describe the situation in The Mekakushi Dan's hideout.

As soon as the news about Kido's disappearance reached other member's ears, the boys quickly set off to search for Kido, leaving a trembling and sobbing Mary in Momo's care. Momo herself was busy checking every room in their hideout, hoping to find Kido or Ene.

Not so long after that, Seto found Kido's torn and bloodstained hoodie in an empty alley not so far from their hideout. Sometime later, Konoha and Hibiya found her broken iPod near the park. But, they couldn't found their owner no matter where they searched.

Momo suggested them to inform the police when the boys come back. Seto vetoed the suggestion right away. He said it would be far too dangerous for all of them, including Kido and Ene. And even if they can inform the police about Kido's disappearance, how could they explained about Ene's?

So decided to keep quiet and searched for the missing girls on their own. Seto and Momo went to town and asked people if they saw a green haired girl recently. Shintaro hacked almost every computers in the town to see if somehow he had accidently sent Ene away. Even Hibiya and Konoha had gone to spied on the laboratory.

Several days passed, and they still couldn't found Kido and Ene. It seemed like both of the just disappeared into thin air. They couldn't find any clue about the culprit.

But, they refused to give up. They had to find their friends, no matter how much it costs.

One night, Mary was alone in the kitchen. Seto was still in the town, refusing to go home with empty hands. Konoha and Hibiya had disappeared to their respective rooms. Momo was worried about her brother, who hadn't slept for days because he spent all of his time trying to find Ene. So, the younger Kisaragi had slipped some drugs in her brother's favorite soda. Now Shintaro was sound asleep, and Momo decided to accompany him.

So, Mary was completely alone.

Mary put the finished dish on the rack carefully. She didn't want to break them and adding another useless thing for her friends to worry on their already too long list.

Somehow, the girl managed to arrange them without any accident, except a small cut on her hand which she got when she had to put a knife. She was going to find a bandage when suddenly the phone rang.

Forgetting her wound completely, Mary ran to pick up the phone in the living room. She grabbed the phone and brought it to her ear.

"Hello!" she whispered.

"Mary? Is that you?" Seto's familiar voice could be heard from the other side. Mary began to nod, but then she realized that Seto couldn't saw her.

Instead, she said, "Yes, it's me, Mary."

"Sorry, Mary, but is Konoha there? Or Shintaro?" Seto asked.

"Yes," Mary answered. "But Shintaro is sleeping and Konoha is probably sleeping as well."

"Ah, I see..." Mary could guessed that something was wrong when she heard Seto's tone.

"What's wrong, Seto?" she asked. "You can tell me everything, okay? I'm no longer a child!"

There was a moment of silence. Then, Seto answered in a shaky voice.

"Nah, everything's alright. I'm going home now, okay? Don't wait for me, I bring the key. Just go to sleep, okay?" without waiting for Mary's reply, Seto hung up.

Mary frowned at the phone. She knew Seto was lying, and it pissed her somehow. Seto had never lied to her.

Mary put the phone back and sighed. "Whatever! I'm going to wait for him! I have to know what he is hiding from me!"

The girl glanced to her wound. The bleeding had stopped. She guess she wouldn't need a bandage again.

She was going to sit on the couch when she suddenly caught a movement from the edge of her eyes.

Mary froze. She slowly turned her head to the right to see if there was someone else in the living room, only to found out that she was completely alone.

"Must be my imagination," she murmured to herself. The girl began to relax for a bit.

But then she could hear a sound.

The sound of someone's footsteps, walking toward her in a slow pace.

Mary quickly turned around, ready to scold whoever was there. But then, her red eyes widen in fear when she saw the figure. Her mouth opened in an attempt to scream...

Then a loud "Bang!" could be heard throughout the hideout.

Shintaro woke up with a jerk when he heard the gunshot's voice. Momo, who was napping on his chair, also woke up with a confused look.

"What is that?" she asked in a sleepy voice.

Shintaro tried to get up, but found it difficult to do because his head suddenly felt dizzy whenever he moved. "Momo, what the fuck did you put in my drink?" he groaned.

"Eh? Just a couple of sleeping pills," Momo replied with an innocent expression.

Shintaro groaned for the second time. He tried to ignore his dizziness and stood up. Momo quickly rushed to her brother's side and helped him to get ob his feet.

"Next time, don't do something like this again!" Shintaro scolded his sister. "Come on! We have to investigate!"

"Can you walk on your own?" Momo asked. Shintaro nodded, and both of them left the room.

"That sound cane from the living room, right?" Shintaro asked while they were walking.

"I think so? By the way, what made that sound?"

"For some reasons, I believe it was a gunshot..."

"A gunshot? In here?" Momo laughed nervously. "Don't be silly! It must be Mary drooping something again!"

"I hope you're right," Shintaro mumbled. Somehow, he felt rather uneasy. He was going to say something about it, but then his body froze.

"Momo..." Shintaro called out his sister's name.

"Huh? What's wrong Onii-chan?" Momo asked, turning her head around to face his brother.

A big mistake.

The next thing Shintaro saw was a spray of red coming out from his sister's body.

Shintaro screamed. He quickly caught Momo's falling body, desperately calling out her name.

But the girl didn't answer his call, no matter how desperate he was and how many times he called her. Her body had gone limp. Her breath stopped. Her previously pink hoodie was stained by a large amount of blood, her blood, and the same blood began to stain Shintaro's red jersey.

Her sister had gone.

Shintaro looked up and gave a hateful glare to a figure cloaked in shadow. It was the same figure he saw earlier at the end of the corridor, right before it shot Momo emotionlessly.

"You!" he shouted. "How could you?"

The figure didn't answer. It just raised it's hand, and then another "Bang!" echoed in the empty corridor.

"Your card doesn't look good," Konoha chuckled.

Hibiya just smirked to respond. "Oh yeah?" he said before throwing a card to join it's friends on the floor.

"Beat that!" he exclaimed with glee.

"Oh, shit!" Konoha cursed, making Hibiya smirked even wider.

The younger boy had knocked on Konoha's door earlier, saying that he couldn't sleep. Konoha couldn't sleep either, which was pretty rare for him, so he had let Hibiya stayed in his room.

Konoha looked at the cards he had and sighed. They seriously didn't look good. At this rate, he was going to lose.

"Hey, mind if I change the music?" Hibiya gestured to Konoha's radio, which was playing all of that time. "I don't really like this artist."

Konoha shrugged, " Sure, go ahead!"

"Thanks," Hibiya said. His hand reached out to grab the radio, but something interrupted his movement.

Konoha flinched when he heard a loud sound, "What was that?"

"A gunshot, maybe?" Hibiya replied with a shrug.

"Oi, you're kidding, right?"

"Maybe…" Hibiya turned the radio off. The room fell silent as the two boys strained their eyes. Then, they could hear someone walking past Konoha's door.

"It's the Kisaragis, right?" Konoha asked, recognizing Momo's and Shintaro's voice right away.

"Yes, so maybe that sound earlier wasn't such a bi…" Hibiya's sentence was cut by the same sound they heard earlier, but much more louder.

"It seriously sounds like a gunshot!" Hibiya said nervously after a moment of silence.

Then, they could hear Shintaro's shout, calling his sister's name again and again in a desperate tone. It was followed by his angry shout.

"You! How could you?!"

A moment later, another banging sound could be heard, and they couldn't hear Shintaro's voice again.

"It's a gunshot," Konoha decided.

"Something fishy is going on," Hibiya said. He stood up, abandoning his cards completely. He began to walk toward the door.

"We have to go check on them," the boy said before he grabbed the doorknob.

"Oi! Hibiya! Wait for me!" Konoha shouted. He put his cards on the floor and stood up, but Hibiya had already opened the door.

What they saw made the boys froze in shock.

"How…" Hibiya began, but the boy never had the chance to finish his sentence.

A bullet stole the chance from Hibiya.

Konoha could only watch in horror asnHibiya's body collapsed to the floor, spraying blood to every direction.

The scene triggered some old memories in the back of Konoha's mind, forcing them to surfaced. All of them was memories he tried so hard to forget. Memories about a particular summer day, where he watched Hibiya's and his loved one's death over and over again.

Just like now.

But now, there was no time loop to save him.

"Why?" Konoha asked to no one in a shaky voice. His body began to tremble as he repeated the same question again and again.

"Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? WHY?!"

Meanwhile, Hibiya's killer just raised the gun silently.

Seto slipped his phone to one of his pocket. He sighed and looked up to the cloudy night sky.

"How am I supposed to tell them about all of this?" he mumbled to himself.

Ever since Kido's sudden disappearance, he had taken the role as the gang's leader. It was a hard job, keeping all of the gang's members in line. He was supposed to be strong, to be a figure everyone could rely on. He was supposed to protect his friends, and so far he had managed to do all of them.

But, seeing that piece of paper, his composure began to crumble.

Contrary to what he said to his friends earlier, Seto had gone to the police's office. He had finally realized their chance to fin Kido, and maybe Ene, without other's party help was zero.

So, he decided to go. He arrived at the office one hour ago and was going to enter the building when he saw a notice, a clearly new one, pinned onto the news board.

It was a warning to all citizens about a particular serial killer going after teenage girls with long hairs. Countless girls had became their victims, and around half of them wasn't yet to be identified.

Kido had long hair. Lovely, silky, green hair.

Seto shook his head. No, he wasn't going to believe that. No, he didn't want to believe it.

But, maybe, tomorrow he would go to the hospital, just to make sure. Until then, he would keep this as a secret from his friends.

"You should go home now," he told himself.

It took him no more than ten minutes to walk to the hideout. Once he arrived at the front door, he inserted his key to the key hole. But soon, he found out that Mary had forgotten to take the key from the inside.

Seto let out a small chuckle. He put the key back to his pocket and went to the hideout's side.

He found out Konoha's room window was wide open, so he could easily snuck in. He hoped his little action wouldn't wake Konoha. The poor boy, all of the gang's members actually, had barely had enough sleep.

Seto immediately knew something was off when he stepped on Konoha's room's floor. He noticed a particular scent in the air, something that didn't belong there. It was a scent of rusty iron…

…or blood.

Seto's eyes widen in shock and anger when he saw a gruesome scene displayed in front of him.

"Why… How… Who…" the boy was unable to find the words to express his anger.

Konoha and Hibiya was laying in their own pool of blood. Cards were scattered around their bodies, all of them soaked by blood. And they weren't moving at all.

Another two people he was supposed to protect had gone…

Seto bite his own lips, trying not to scream in frustation. He quickly rushed to where Konoha body was laying. The boy's body was still farm, meaning he hadn't been gone for long.

The culprit might still be around.

"I won't forgive you!" Seto swore. He stood up and left Konoha's room, leaving his friends bodies behind. He would take care of them later, after he gave a lesson to their killer.

Another heart-stopping scene was offered to him in the corridor.

The Kisaragis were laying in the middle of the corridor. The older one was holding his his sister close. Their clothes were soaked by blood, and the same blood had stained the previously white floor and wall.

Two more had gone…

And then, something hit his mind.

He hadn't seen Mary yet.

Without hesitation, Seto ran to Mary's room, but the girl's room was empty. The girl didn't go to sleep like he told her to. Then, what did she do after Seto called him.

Turning his body around, Seto began to run toward the living room. He was sure that Mary had ignored his instruction and was waiting for him.

"Please let her be safe… Please let her be safe…" Seto chanted again and again while he was running.

But, his hope was shattered when he entered the strangely cold living room.

He saw Mary's body on the floor, covered by her own blood. The girl was clutching a pillow tightly. Judging from a bullet hole on it, looked like Mary was using the pillow as a shield. But, a mere pillow didn't stand a chance in front of a flying bullet.

Seto collapsed to his knees beside Mary's body. He gently took Mary's right hand and squeezed it tightly. All of his anger earlier, had vanished without a trace right after he saw Mary's lifeless body.

Vanished. Just like Mary, Konoha, Hibiya, Kano, Momo, Shintaro, Kido, Ene, because now he was sure Kido and Ene were dead too.

Everyone had vanished, leaving him behind.

For the first time in years, Seto cried.

"Why?" he whispered, holding Mary's already cold hand even tighter. "Why? Why all of you have to leave me? I was supposed to protect everyone. But, why?"

Suddenly, he felt another presence standing behind him. It was a familiar one, a presence he had known for countless years.

"Why? Why are you doing this?"

No one answered his question…

But then, that person's memories came rushing to his mind. That person's sorrows, regrets, hopes…

And he finally understood.

He could feel something hard and cold pressed against the back of his head, and he could tell that the hand who held it was trembling.

Then, he could hear that person's voice.

"I'm sorry…"

"No, don't apologize. I understand, I completely understand…"

The last thing Seto heard was a click when the gun's trigger was pulled.

A memory flashed in the back of his mind before darkness claimed his consciusness.

It wasn't his memory. It was that person's memory he saw earlier, that person's hope.

And somewhere deep down in his heart, Seto knew he was hoping for the same thing…

In the middle of the dimly lit living room, a lone girl was standing.

In front of her, laying motionlessly on the floor, were bodies of a girl and a boy. Both of them were her friends, her families…

…and she had killed them, along with the rest of the gang's members, with her own hands.

Yes, she killed them, every single one of them.

Tears began to form on the edge of her eyes, the transparent beds rolled on her white cheeks before they fell on her bloodstained white shirts.

"Now, we could be together again…" she whispered to herself.

"Kano will be no longer alone. Shintaro will be able to see his beloved Ayano again. Konoha and Hibiya will be reunited with Hiyori again. yes, we could be together again, all of us. Everyone will be happy…"

The girl brought her gun to her temple. A happy, yet sad, smile began to form on her lips.

"As a leader," she began, "it's my duty to keep all of us together, no matter what happens. And now, I'll be able to fulfill my duty."

"So, wait for me, guys! I'll join all of you very, very soon! Wait for me, everyone!"

Then, Kido Tsubomi, the first and last member of Mekakushi Dan, pulled the trigger.

The memory Seto saw, was a memory about all of the Mekakushi Dan's member, laughing with carefree expressions.

Let's be happy together…

Forever…


End file.
